Why Nano GCCs are the Future of Global Capability Centres

The future of global capability centres (GCCs) is no longer anchored in scale, but in specialisation, resilience and the ability to build high-density talent hubs that directly power an enterprise’s most mission-critical work. This shift has led to the establishment of nano GCCs, a new construct that is rapidly gaining momentum. 

Nano GCCs are capability-rich, leadership-heavy hubs, typically housing 50 to 150 skilled experts who work on advanced domains that demand precision, confidentiality, regulatory alignment and higher intellectual capital. These units are emerging as an alternative to the traditional large-format centres that have so far defined India’s GCC landscape. 

This new form factor represents the evolution of a model that has matured beyond its cost-first origins. “India has long lost its value as a cost arbitrage centre,” said Pancham Taneja, country head at Delta Capita, at the MachineCon GCC Summit 2025, held from November 29 to December 1 in Goa. Taneja said that the differentiation today comes from capability density, speed of execution, and the ability to run sensitive, high-impact work within India’s talent ecosystem. 

Nano GCCs embody this trajectory by functioning as tightly curated centres of excellence in fields such as chip design, cyber and identity security, automotive functional safety, AI governance, telecom RAN and 5G security, risk and model validation, and clinical data science. In these domains, expertise matters far more than volume and governance is as critical as delivery. 

The Need for Nano GCCs

This shift toward smaller and more sovereign teams is driven by global forces that are reshaping how enterprises operate in an age marked by AI acceleration, geopolitical unpredictability and rising regulatory scrutiny. As the world moves from globalisation to what many now call “multi-local resilience”, organisations no longer want single, monolithic offshore centres. They seek distributed, risk-diverse capability hubs that can operate as autonomous, compliant and secure units, especially for data-sensitive or regulation-controlled work. 

Nano GCCs meet this need by offering the agility and governance intensity that large centres often struggle to maintain. They provide environments that can accelerate innovation while reducing operational exposure. 

This transition is reinforced by the impact of AI on talent models. As automation absorbs repetitive and transactional work, enterprises are asking not “how many people do we have?” but “how skilled can our people be?” The answer increasingly points to smaller, high-calibre teams capable of orchestrating AI, validating AI systems, and embedding responsible and compliant AI practices across the enterprise. 

In this context, nano GCCs are strategically positioned to become the command centres for AI governance and AI-powered transformation as they allow leaders to maintain tight oversight of data flows, model risk, regulatory compliance, and safety frameworks. “The GCCs of the future will be the governance and predictability backbone of the enterprise,” Taneja explained.

Tier 2 Destinations for Nano GCCs

Nano GCCs, with their scale of control and concentration of expertise, are uniquely suited to carry this mantle. Tier 2 destinations such as Mangaluru, Mysuru, Coimbatore, Vizag, Kochi and Jaipur are emerging as credible, talent-rich, low-attrition hubs that support companies seeking diversification and continuity without the pressure of metro-level attrition or competition.

As Nano GCCs do not require thousands of hires, these cities offer the perfect environment for building deeply specialised teams, enabling companies to assemble the apt 100 people, rather than chase the next 1,000. 

In compliance-heavy sectors like BFSI, healthcare, automotive, aerospace and telecom, sensitive operations must be run in secure pods, and outsourcing is either risky or prohibited. The nano GCC model allows enterprises to create restricted-capability pods with tight command structures, controlled knowledge systems, and leadership visibility that cannot be achieved at scale.

This is especially important as regulators across the US, EU and APAC increasingly demand transparency, traceability and accountability in how global operations are run, particularly when AI, data, risk and safety are involved. 

With compact teams, high governance intensity and controlled operating models, Nano GCCs ensure compliance is baked into the centre’s architecture. 

The advantages they offer are striking. High talent density results in higher innovation velocity, distributed design reduces geopolitical and operational risk, specialised teams allow faster capability incubation, tight leadership bandwidth ensures stronger culture and accountability, and the distributed model enhances global resilience by preventing any single location from becoming a point of failure. 

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of nano GCCs is their ability to scale capability without scaling cost or complexity, offering global enterprises a future-ready operating system that is lean, intelligent and governance-aligned. 

In many ways, Taneja believes the nano GCC is the perfect response to the pressures and possibilities of the next decade—agile, valuable and structured enough to remain compliant in an increasingly regulated world.

He said that as large enterprises rethink their global footprints, the next phase of the GCC story will not be defined by mega campuses alone. A constellation of small, powerful nodes distributed across India, each driving a specific, high-value capability with intensity and precision, will define the next phase, he added.

These centres will serve as the strategic backbone of global operations and innovation, enabling companies to build resilient, domain-rich, governance-anchored networks, rather than depend on monolithic structures. 

Ultimately, nano GCCs represent the shift from efficiency to expertise, from volume to value, and from scale to specialisation.

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